Nature and Utopia the Focus of a New Book Co-Edited by Jacobs

UMaine Professor of English Naomi Jacobs and University of Delaware Professor of Classics Annette Giesecke have co-edited a new volume of 17 utopian studies essays: “Earth Perfect? Nature, Utopia and the Garden”. The researchers focus on ancient and modern utopian approaches to the garden, “a human creation driven by the desire to find an ideal place in nature — a second, kinder nature as opposed to a nature that can be unpredictable and harsh.” Their work is the inspiration for a June 6–9 symposium at the University of Delaware that showcases the garden as an emblem of the ideal human relation with nature. Giesecke and Jacobs are co-chairing the symposium, which includes tours of important public gardens in Delaware and Pennsylvania. Jacobs, a scholar of utopian and dystopian fiction and utopianism in popular culture, and Giesecke, an expert on ancient Greek and Roman gardens, have been collaborating since 2009.